The goal-setting system I use every year to get results I'm excited about

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Deep Dive

Setting the scene . . .

Imagine this: it’s December 31, 2026 and you’re reflecting on the last year. You feel genuinely proud and excited about what you accomplished, and deeply grateful for the joyful moments you shared with people you care about. The year wasn’t perfect (they never are), but you grew in ways that past you would barely believe, and you aimed your energy at goals that actually mattered to you.

It is a wonderful feeling.

And one you know you can build on again next year, because the systems that set you up for success are enduring.

What follows is a simple framework that balances ambition with sustainability, so progress compounds year over year.

In today’s issue, I’m going to take you through the exact steps that I’ve taken for the last five years as I set my personal and professional goals for the year. You can try following my method exactly or refine it as works for you.

1. Start with a vision board

Back when I was running a plant-based juice and smoothie bar, I met people who leaned a lot more heavily into the spiritual and mystical, and into the power of mindset, than I had ever experienced working in big law. No real surprise there.

And while I won’t be buying crystals to clear blocked chakras (no judgment, it’s just not my thing), one of the many valuable practices that I learned from the wellness community was the power of a vision board.

Lawyers tend to be incredibly analytical, which is a strength in many ways. But I encourage you to have an open mind when it comes to vision boarding. They’ve been a lot more effective, and also more fun to make, than I anticipated.

Whether you believe that identifying a clear vision for your upcoming year is a method of manifesting through the power of positive thought, simply a way to identify what you want so that you can focus your efforts in the right direction, or something in between, a vision board can be a powerful tool. I like what I call ‘planifesting’: combining belief with specific plans, effort, and action to make things happen.

There are many online tutorials for how to make a vision board, but in my view, the most important thing is to envision how you want to feel and what you want to experience during the year—excitement, calm, adventure, time with family, accomplishments at work, etc. Your vision board doesn’t have to be literal; you can use images or words that make you think of the feeling or event you’re envisioning.

In my experience, a single vision board that reflects your whole life—not separate professional and personal ones—is the most effective.

I also like to choose one to three words of focus for the year and include them on the vision board; most likely, some of the images will correspond with those words. For 2025, mine were community, challenge, and fun.

A great vision board does a lot of the work of goal setting for you. You don’t have to list out every little thing you’re going to do; instead, you use the vision board to paint the big picture, and throughout the year, you use logic to fill in the details.

To make the board itself, I use Canva, combining digital photos that I upload myself with photos and other images and text from within Canva and across the internet. I know some people who prefer to cut up magazines, catalogs, and printed photos. Do whatever will be fun and enjoyable for you.

I’ve historically printed on 5×7 cardstock with Shutterfly; for 2026 I’m printing from Canva’s “print with Canva” option to see how that goes. Some of my friends prefer to set their vision boards as their digital background. Again, do what works for you.

2. Pick and commit to one really hard thing for the year that you will accomplish outside of work

If you follow me on LinkedIn, you know that every year, I pick a really hard physical challenge. It’s important that it’s so hard I have to train extensively for it, and even then, it’s not guaranteed I’ll be able to complete it.

My “hard things” in recent years have included training to qualify for the Boston Marathon, hiking rim-to-rim-to-rim in the Grand Canyon in one day, and most recently, running a 50-mile ultramarathon.

Your hard thing can be physical, but it doesn’t have to be. The point is to pick something that will challenge and stretch you, that will take meaningful work to prepare for and accomplish. It should feel uncomfortable while you’re working on it, and unbelievably good when you accomplish it. And it should be tied to where you are today.

Perhaps you haven’t run a mile in ten years and commit to running a 10K race in 2026. Or you biked 100 miles in a weekend last year, and you commit to 100 in a day for 2026.

Or maybe you pick something that challenges you other than physically, like that you will learn piano and perform at an end-of-year recital, or that you’ll finish the first draft of the novel you’ve been planning to write but haven’t gotten around to.

There are multiple benefits to setting and working towards this goal. Obviously, accomplishing something challenging feels great — that’s one of the points. And the hard work of pursuing the goal is a great reminder that you can do hard things, and it’s a great way to control the hardest part of your day (by making it your training). If the goal is big enough, and you prepare enough, you may just find that you are capable of more than you thought.

I like to put an image or word on my vision board that represents my “hard thing” (a picture of the Grand Canyon for my rim-to-rim-to-rim year, a Garmin when I wanted to qualify for the Boston Marathon, and this year, I have a woman swimming in open water to represent my “hard thing”).

3. Pick and commit to one area of professional development for the year

The most effective in-house lawyers are intentional about their professional growth, year after year.

And starting the practice of proactively improving yourself early is important, because it establishes the habit, helps you build a reputation as someone who invests in yourself (which makes others more likely to invest in you too), and because the growth compounds over time.

The year you invest in learning everything you can about privacy law is important. So is the year you invest in becoming a better public speaker. And once you’ve invested in both, suddenly you’re the go-to for teaching business teams—including execs—what they need to know about privacy law in order to do their jobs, and doing it with poise and clarity.

In no particular order, here are some of mine from previous years: become a more effective negotiator, grow a deeper understanding of how AI works, learn more media law, and learn the financial fundamentals of business.

You might note that many of these are not explicitly law related. You want to pick something that helps you perform better in your role today, while also preparing you for the roles you want in the future. For in-house lawyers, a lot of the things that we can learn to be better at are related to soft skills and business.

When choosing what to focus on, I always try to pick a focus area that will be useful (now and in the future) and that I’m excited to work on. There are certain areas I know I could become more expert at that would be at least somewhat useful, but just don’t excite me. Since they’re no more important or useful than the areas that do excite me, I pick the ones that are naturally appealing.

4. Map out goals at work that drive company goals

Effective legal team goals, and effective goals for individual members of the legal team, drive company goals. They are also measurable and specific.

While general goals to improve (“reduce contract negotiation time” or “improve our customer terms of service”) may be helpful, if they aren’t chosen with the specific intent of driving towards broader company goals, they are a missed opportunity for maximum impact.

Instead, start with company-wide goals and work backwards from there. I am including this section because it is something you need to do (and it’s essential), but it is also slightly less in your control than the other aspects of goal setting—because company goals serve as guardrails.

I’ll dedicate a full issue in January to breaking down this kind of goal-setting step by step.

Make it fun. That’s how you make it work.

The process of setting your goals and intentions should be fun and exciting, because that’s the type of life you want to build. And also because if it’s not fun, or at least vaguely enjoyable, it probably won’t work.

Too many people start each January making the same punishing resolutions year after year. We resolve to become morning people, go to the gym every day, and eat our broccoli. And the next December, having failed to change, we make those same resolutions again — though with a little less conviction.

What I like about the approach I’ve outlined is that it is based on positivity, rather than avoidance. On creating a vision board that shows the type of life you want and simply excludes the things you don’t. A massive goal that is a win when you accomplish it.

If you try all or part of this approach, I’d love to hear from you. How did you feel while working through your goals? What did you decide on?

As we close out 2025, I want to take a moment to say thank you; and happy new year!

I know how valuable your time is, and I truly appreciate your choosing to spend a few minutes each week with me. I hope this newsletter has been a useful, thoughtful, and worthwhile part of your year.

In 2026, you can expect more practical techniques, tools, and perspectives you can actually use to build a career and a life as an in-house lawyer that you love.

And if there are specific topics, challenges, or questions you’d like me to cover, I’d love to hear from you.